


fallen

by grimmrific



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Antisemitism, Background Relationships, Badass Dipper Pines, Badass Mabel Pines, Bill Cipher Being Bill Cipher, Bipper, Canon Divergence - Weirdmageddon, Darkest Timeline, Demonic Possession, Demons, Depravity Falls, Fist Fights, Ford Pines Needs a Hug, Ford Pines' Portal Adventures, Future Fic, Gravity Falls Is Weird, Gun Violence, Minor Fiddleford H. McGucket/Ford Pines, Minor Pacifica Northwest/Mabel Pines, Mullet Stan Pines, Mystery Twins, Sad with a Happy Ending, Sadistic Bill Cipher, Stan Pines Angst, Stan Pines Needs A Hug, Swearing, Teenage Dipper Pines, Teenage Mabel Pines, Weirdmageddon, Young Ford Pines, i guess this has some depravity falls elements so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24206803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimmrific/pseuds/grimmrific
Summary: When Ford enters the portal, he finds himself in an alternate future-- one where Mabel pushed the button and he was never brought back. Without Ford there to help stop it, the Weirdmaggedon has been raging for almost two years, and the citizens of Gravity Falls have had to find a way to survive in the barren wasteland that was once their town. With Stan resigned to his fate and Dipper and Mabel having to fend for themselves, it seems like Ford is the only one that can defeat Bill Cipher and make things right in this strange new timeline. But can he?
Relationships: Fiddleford H. McGucket/Ford Pines, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Pacifica Northwest/Mabel Pines
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. The Other Side

Stanford Pines backed closer and closer to the portal behind him, away from the brother he had once been so close to. This was the worst fight he and Stanley had ever had, and it was all because of him. His thoughts were scattered and contradictory. _If I hadn't been so foolish- no, Stanley is the selfish one, I came to him at my lowest point and this is how he treats me-_

"Some brother you turned out to be," growled Stanley, clenching his injured arm. Despite Ford's anger, he was still hoping that after this fight, everything would be okay again. After being turned on by his best friend and virtually ignored by his parents, Stanley was all he had left. But at this point, a happy ending was not looking likely. He thought anxiously of the activated portal behind him. _Come on Stanley try to see my point of view I'm your brother we can work this out please don't do what I think you're gonna do-_

"You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family, well then you can have 'em!" With that, Stanley pushed Stanford into the portal's direct vicinity, and he began to float toward into its crackling orifice. The malice instantly disappeared from Stanley's face after he realized what he'd done. "Woah woah, hey, what's goin' on?! Hey, hey! Stanford-"

"Stanley, Stanley help me!" called out Stanford with desperation. His thoughts were rushing around in his head as his life flashed before his eyes. _Pushed into my own creation by my twin brother I can't go out like this what if I'm trapped there forever I can't go out now not like this please_

"Oh no, what do I do?" Stanley panicked.

"Stanley! Stanley do something! Stanleeey!" His final cry rang out in the air followed by a bright flash of white, and then silence.

\---

Stanford regained consciousness on hot, hard ground, feeling confused, hurt, and betrayed. _Destroyed by my own creation._ _How could my twin brother...?_

He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying somewhere barren and singed, almost like a forest that had been ravaged by ages of wildfire. There were no plants in sight besides some burnt weeds and patches of dead grass. There weren't any buildings around that weren't severely damaged, or demolished altogether. And even those were far away, beyond walking distance. He thought back to when he and Stanley were kids. He put his head in his hands, lamenting all of the failures that brought him to this point. _Why did things have to turn out this way?_

He suddenly felt something prod at his side, snapping him out of his self-pity. He turned around to see a teenage girl standing over him with a bazooka. She was chewing bubblegum and had a pink sweater tied around her waist. Despite being very young, she had the expression of someone much older. Someone who had seen things.

"What's your name?" she asked flatly.

"W-where am I?"

"Name."

 _Whoever this is, she means business._ "Um... Stanford Pines?"

The girl made a buzzer noise. "Eeaah. Wrong answer. Grunkle Stan is in there." She motioned with her bazooka to the bunker about a mile behind her. Ford suddenly noticed that her bazooka had a rainbow painted on it along with the words FUN CANNON. This would have been amusing to him, if she weren't scaring him so much. "I'll give you points though pal, at least you tried to look like him."

Ford slowly got to his feet, raising his arms in surrender. He gulped upon noticing that she was aiming the bazooka at his heart. "Look, I don't know where I am, I went through a portal and now I'm here-"

The girl became very alert as soon as he said "portal". She lowered her weapon and held up her hand to get him to stop talking. "Like the one under the shack?" she asked seriously.

"Y-yes, it was under my house, if that's what you mean, I'm from the year 1981-"

"1981..," the girl repeated under her breath. She looked from side to side, then beckoned for him to follow her. He reluctantly got up and trailed behind the mysterious girl.

 _Something about this place makes me feel uneasy_ , Ford thought. _Like I've seen it before._

 _"_ Look out," the girl said suddenly, blasting a shot in Ford's direction. He leapt out of the way just in time for the bazooka blast to hit and kill a monster that had been behind him. Ford stood over it, puzzling over what it could be. To him, it just looked like a mess of teeth, eyeballs, and tongues. He instinctively felt his jacket pocket for his journal, but then remembered that it was in the hands of _don't think about him please don't_. The strange girl laughed at his expression.

"Boy, you're really not from around here, are ya?" she said, hoisting the bazooka onto her shoulder with a look that seemed to say _Those things are all over the place. How have you not seen one before?_ "C'mon weirdo, let's keep moving."

They continued across the barren wasteland, weeds crunching under their feet, toward the bunker she had motioned to earlier. The only above-ground part of it was a blocky, rectangular entrance that had been painted over with metallic gray paint. It looked almost eerie sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty area. When they got to the entrance, the girl rapped three times on the door. Another young voice came from inside, this one male. "Password."

"Dip, it's me," said the girl, annoyed. "I left, like, five minutes ago."

" _Password._ "

She sighed. "Waddles," she then said reluctantly. 

The door opened, and Ford found that the boy looked a lot like the girl, except that he had a birthmark shaped like a constellation on his forehead, and a familiar mop of brown hair. One that reminded him of _don't think about him not now not now..._

"This guy looks like Stan," said the boy after looking Ford up and down.

"I _am_ Stan!" _They can't be talking about... him, can they? No, that can't be it, I just saw him..._

"Thinking it might be some crazy time travel stuff," said the girl, ignoring Stanford. "Says he's from 1981. I'm taking him to Stan now."

Her ( _brother? roommate?_ ) looked at her incredulously. Ford couldn't help but stare at the boy's strange birthmark. 

"Are you really from 1981?" the boy asked.

Ford nodded. "What year is it now?"

The two teenagers looked at each other. It seemed as though they were wordlessly debating whether to tell him or not.

"It's the year 2014," the girl said finally. Ford was taken aback.

It was at this point that the boy noticed his six-fingered hands. He nudged his sister in their direction, and they shared a knowing look. Ford braced himself for the inevitable questions, or even ridicule, that would follow. Instead, with a touch of relief on his face, the boy said: "Definitely take him to Stan".

As he followed the girl deeper into the bunker, Ford felt the questions in his head continue to pile up. _What happened to the world? Where am I? Am I going to meet myself? Who are these two?_

The air inside the bunker was thin and pressure controlled. It felt like being in an airplane, and it was starting to make Ford queasy. _I can't believe these people live like this._ He peered around at the girl walking in front of him. She had the voice and appearance of someone very young, but she carried herself as if she were an adult. And a very important adult, at that. Someone who had the fate of the entire world resting on their shoulders. The boy was the same way. 

_What has to happen to a kid to make them into this? I've gotta say something._ "What's your name?"

She hesitated. "Mabel."

"That's a nice name," said Ford nicely. She shrugged. 

"What about that other kid we just saw? Is he your brother?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

"I'm just... curious, is all."

They walked in silence for a while. After she seemed to have relaxed a bit, Ford tried again.

"So... your password is 'waddles'?" 

She tensed up suddenly. _Uh-oh. Wrong subject_.

"Yup," she said curtly. "Named after a pet that I had. Look, I made the password when I was a kid, okay?"

 _It seems I've struck a nerve. I don't think whatever happened to this pet was any good._ Ford decided to stop talking to this "Mabel" person, and they soon stopped at the final door. 

She opened it, and behind it Ford saw an old man wearing a filthy white wifebeater and drinking liquor out of the bottle. Ford instantly felt pity for the man. Whoever he was, he looked like he'd been through a lot. He was sitting facing away from him at what looked like a dining table, which made Ford realize that this shabby room was supposed to be a kitchen. There were dirty dishes and playing cards strewn about, as well as a smattering of cigarette butts. The man turned to face him. Ford immediately recognized his weathered face, and he felt as though he had been punched in the gut. It couldn't be. But it was.

_Stanley?_


	2. Trust No One

Everything seemed to stop as the two brothers stared at each other, dumbfounded. _I saw him less than an hour ago_ , Ford thought with bewilderment. _And now I'm already meeting him as an old man._

Stan initially looked just as shocked as he was. He slowly approached his brother, and then embraced him. "I can't believe it's really you," he said tearfully. "I thought I lost you forever."

Ford pulled away. Stan looked hurt, but said nothing. _What is he talking about? Did he forget what he did to me?_

"Grunkle Stan, who is this guy?" asked Mabel, approaching them cautiously.

"The author of the journals," said Stan. "My brother."

Mabel's jaw dropped. She looked from Ford to Stan with awe. Ford rolled his eyes. Stan always did have a flair for the dramatic.

"So he _is_ the author," said the boy from the doorway. "I can't believe it."

"Stan, who are these two? And what happened here?" asked Ford impatiently.

"Ah, naturally you want to know what's going on," said Stan, setting down his drink. "This is my great niece Mabel, and my great nephew Dipper. Twins, pointdexter. Like us. As for what happened, that can be summed up in two words: Bill Cipher."

Ford went pale. _Even hearing his name makes me feel a fear that I can't describe._

"Bill... of course! He tricked me. He-," Ford suddenly found himself unable to speak.

"It's okay," said Dipper. "I read about it in your journals. I know."

_He's read them!_

"My journals! Are they here?" asked Ford, his hope rising.

"Um... sorry, pointdexter," said Stan as Ford's face fell. "They were destroyed... by Bill."

Ford stood there quietly for a moment, before suddenly backing up when Stan tried to comfort him.

"You need to quit calling me those nicknames, Stanley," Ford warned. "You're on thin ice. It's because of you that I'm even here!"

Stan winced at his brother's shouting. He picked up his drink again. "I tried for 31 years to get you back, Stanford. Over half of my life," he said bitterly. "You don't know the first thing about me. Do you really think I would just give up on you after what I did? I- I taught myself quantum physics, for god's sake, _complicated_ _science_ , so I could use that portal to get my brother back and tell him I'm sorry. And guess what? Here you are! Mission accomplished!"

"Wait..," Dipper said suddenly. "That's what the portal was for? You were trying to bring your brother back? Why didn't you tell us?"

Mabel suddenly ran out of the room, visibly upset. Stan watched the scene unfold with remorse.

"Stan... What did you do?" asked Ford. 

"I was so close..," began Stan, before getting misty eyed and turning away from his brother. "I tried to bring you back, I swear. But-- but things got in the way."

"Stan," said Dipper angrily, nodding towards the doorway Mabel had exited through. "She can hear you, you know."

Ford took a seat at the dining table and turned to Dipper. "Tell me what happened."

As it turns out, Dipper was an excellent storyteller. He told Ford about the relatively carefree days of that first summer in Gravity Falls, when he and his sister solved spooky mysteries together and lived with their great uncle Stan in a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. Dipper recounted to Ford his immature crush on a girl named Wendy, and how he would obsessively pore over the third journal until he could barely keep his eyes open. He talked about the adventures he and his sister had with their friend Soos, and the endearing annoyance of his sister's friends, Candy and Grenda. He told Ford about all of the creatures he and his sister encountered-- gnomes, wax figures, mermen, dinosaurs, zombies, Gideon-- and how whenever they were messed with by Bill Cipher, they would mess with him right back until he retreated back to his other dimension.

He recounted what he had been doing on the morning of Stan's arrest: eating popsicles with the othersand shooting firecrackers from the roof of the shack. And then, he spoke of the bombshells that were uncovered (namely, the death of "Stan Pines" and the existence of the portal) in the hours that followed. He recounted, while fighting back tears, the scene of him, Stan, and Soos pinned against the laboratory wall, and Mabel's fist slamming down on the button, followed by everyone catching their breath on the ground as Stan kept screaming that he was _so close so close to getting him back why god why,_ followed by weeks of silence as the members of the Pines family individually dealt with their feelings of betrayal, followed by Stan drinking more, and talking to his niece and nephew less. He recounted when Stan, who had all of his faith drained out of him, finally dismantled the portal to find a contained interdimensional rift. And when he, Dipper, under the possession of Bill Cipher, forcefully took the rift from his great uncle and triggered the weirdmaggedon that destroyed their town.

"I don't think anybody in this family has trusted anyone in a long time," Dipper finished with a weak smile. 

Ford had to take a minute to process everything Dipper had said. Finally, he put his hand on Dipper's shoulder and said, "Son, I promise you that I will put an end to this. Bill has to be stopped, and I'm going to be the one to do it."

Dipper laughed out loud. "That's kind of impossible, dude. But thanks," he said, getting up from his chair.

"Where are your parents, anyway? And what happened to the shack?"

"We haven't been able to get in touch with them for years," said Dipper wearily, cracking open a lukewarm can of Pitt Cola. "Bill put a forcefield around the town so nobody can get out, and nobody can get in. And internet? Forget it. I'm honestly starting to forget what they look like."

Ford felt a pang of sympathy in his chest. _Their parents must have been so worried all these years._

"And as for the shack," inquired Stan, motioning to the area around them, "this is all that's left of it."

It suddenly dawned on Ford. _This is..._

"My laboratory!" he exclaimed. "You've converted it into a living space!"

"Bingo," said Stan. "That entrance up there? Used to be a vending machine. But we had to paint over it to make it look more, yaknow, inconspicuous,"

Ford's thoughts suddenly shifted to Mabel. She had been so cool and confident when he first met her, and yet when her mistake was brought up, she was instantly reduced to tears. _That poor girl. She must be up there right now thinking that she ruined my brother's life._

"I'm going upstairs to talk to your sister," said Ford, getting up.

"Are you sure about that, sir?" asked Dipper.

Ford gave a good natured chuckle. "Please, call me Grunkle Ford."

He then headed upstairs to comfort his new niece. _What good kids. Cynical, and tough, but good._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this chapter was a little heavy. Hope u guys liked it though! More are coming soon :)


	3. It Won't Happen Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry those last two chapters were so short! The first ones are always the hardest to write. -_- I think I'm getting the hang of it now though, haha. Enjoy!

Ford decided that the sticker-covered door must be the door to Mabel's room, judging by the way she dressed and the style of her weapons. Ford knocked on it gingerly. After hearing no answer, he pushed it open to find a shabby cinderblock room with a dirty mattress on the floor. Under the covers was a Mabel-shaped lump. The sight of it depressed him. The room had no windows and was almost completely bare, and that mattress... _That's not the kind of mattress you buy_ , he thought. _That's the kind of mattress you find somewhere._

He began to second-guess himself about this whole thing. Less than an hour before, he was getting into an altercation with his twin brother, and now here he was trying to give a pep talk to a family member that he never even knew existed. Or, _would_ exist. And it's not like he had much experience talking to teenagers, either. What had he himself been doing as a teenager besides scientific study and getting his brother out of jams ( _that same brother is downstairs drinking himself to death-- shut up shut up_ ); in fact, he was sure that if you added up the numbers, you would find that he literally spent more hours doing those two things than he spent talking to other people in total. Also, as a teenager, he hadn't been living in an apocalyptic wasteland. One that it's very likely he caused through one wrong decision. _Why do you think you being here would have changed anything, isn't that a bit narciss- okay shut up point taken._

He sighed and walked over to where the girl was hiding. Her lumpy form shifted slightly as he knelt down next to her. "Are you okay, Mabel?"

Her name still felt strange and unfamiliar on his tongue, making him feel vaguely ashamed of himself. _My own great niece is somehow a stranger to me. What have I gotten myself into?_

"Mabel's not here," the voice from under the covers answered. "Come back later."

"You don't have to be so hard on yourself," he assured her. "None of us blame you."

Suddenly, she ripped the covers off of herself. Her face was tear-stricken and puffy. "You just got here!" she cried. "You weren't there! You didn't have to deal with the aftermath of that day, and the quietness of the shack, and the yellow possessed eyes of your own brother that pierce your soul and make you feel so... so-" She began to sob. "Scared..."

Ford shuddered inwardly at her description of demonic possession, but managed to keep his composure. _This has clearly been building up inside her for quite some time. I don't blame her. I don't know what I'd do if I saw Stanley get possessed... twice._ "Possession is scary," he agreed. "I know plenty about that."

Mabel looked at him, sniffling. He could tell that she was expecting him to elaborate.

"...Bill took over my mind several times," he continued reluctantly. "And trust me, I handled it a lot worse than it seems like your brother did. He must be a tough nut to crack."

He saw fear flicker in the young girl's eyes for a moment, only to be replaced by curiosity. Ford's breath caught as he debated whether to tell her the more personal details. About all the mistakes he made and all the people he disappointed. About him throwing himself into his work only to let it be taken over by a demon, about his hubris concerning the people around him, about his lab partner warning him _Remember what happened to Icarus_ and about him replying _He didn't flap hard enough_ , and about _Some brother you turned out to b- stop stop stop shut up_.

Instead, he merely patted her on the back and said, "He'll be alright, and so will you. Trust me."

That seemed to satisfy her, as she rolled over to face the wall. "Keep the light on," she said as he left.

\---

Upon re-entering the kitchen, Ford was given directions to his bedroom by Dipper. _I wonder how they managed to get so much construction done down here without giving it away up there_ , he thought.

"Hey, wait," Dipper said as Ford was about to leave. "Could I show you my room for a second? There's some stuff down there I think you would be interested in."

It amused Ford that this young man already felt like he knew him well enough to make that claim. "Sure," replied Ford. "Show me what you've got." 

Dipper led him to his room and opened the door. _Wow. He was right, consider my interest piqued._

Like Mabel's, this was a cinderblock room, but the one of the main differences was that Dipper had practically coated the walls in notes and research. There was a desk in the corner that looked like it had been picked up from a curb somewhere, and it was covered almost completely in filled-up journals. Dipper noticed the look of awe on Ford's face and exhaled with relief.

"When I was younger, I would always fantasize about the day I would meet the author of the journals," he said wistfully. "And now that you're finally here, I can show you that my research didn't stop once they got destroyed."

"Dipper, this- this is incredible!" exclaimed Ford, and Dipper smiled widely like he had just gotten a Christmas present. "You've done more research in the past two years than I did in my entire adult life!"

"Yeah, well," said Dipper, trying to play it cool, "It's not like I had much else to do."

Ford shifted his gaze to the itinerary of weapons that lay in an open chest on the floor. 

"Oh right, that's-," stammered Dipper. "That's kind of necessary stuff to have."

"I see you don't bother decorating yours like your sister does."

Dipper chuckled. "I like that she does that. It sort of reminds me of how she used to be. Oh, that's right! I want to give you something."

He began to rummage through his desk drawers until he pulled out a leather-bound journal marked with a sigil. "I wanna give this to you," he said, tossing it to Ford. "It's marked with a sigil so that Bill can't get in."

"I've never even seen this sigil before," Ford murmured with fascination. "Had I known, I would have marked my own journals with it."

Dipper beamed with pride. "There's a lot of stuff you didn't get a chance to learn about this town, which is why you're free to read my research anytime you want. I mean-- if you want to..."

Ford realized that Dipper had been sweating nervously this whole time. "I'll definitely do that," he said reassuringly. "But for now, I really must get to bed."

"Oh right! Sorry, sorry," Dipper said profusely. 

\---

As Ford laid in his bare mattress on the floor that night, he could barely even begin to process the day he had. After ruining his relationship with his brother, he was immediately taken to a future where his brother was an old man who had lost everything, and where he had two young relatives he had never even met. And now, inexplicably, he felt it was his duty to care for these kids. He thought with disdain about the trust he once had for Bill, and how that same being had now ruined his family's lives. _The portal could have taken me anywhere, but it took me here. Maybe this is my chance to make things right. To make things right..._ He felt his eyelids getting heavier and he drifted off, still repeating that last part in his head.

He found himself on the beach. Glass Shard Beach, back in Jersey. The air was thick with the taste of salt and the water felt warm around his ankles. He heard creaking noises behind him and looked over his shoulders to find a familiar child sitting on the swing set with his head down. _Stanley?_ he called out. The child didn't answer. He began to walk towards him when he suddenly jerked his head upward, revealing cat-like yellow eyes.

 _THINK AGAIN, SIXER!_ the child screeched in Bill's voice. Ford stumbled backwards as the figure got up and began to walk towards the shoreline. He sat there for a moment, frozen in fear. _No, no, what has he done, what have_ I _done_ -

Seeing his brother's body making such unnatural, jerky steps was enough to snap him out of his stupor after a few seconds. _Stanley, Stanley!_ he screamed, scrambling to his feet and running towards him. _Wake up!_ He managed to catch his young brother's body in his arms as it collapsed just short of the water. _Come on, snap out of it_ , he pleaded as the sky became cloudy and red. 

_Siiiixxxerrrrr...._

Ford looked up to see Stan standing out in the water, except this time, it was the Stan who had pushed him into the portal earlier that day. _Missed me, sucker!_ the yellow eyed Stan called out.

Ford looked back at the young boy in his arms to find him disintegrating into sand. He shakily stood back up as the sand ran through his fingers. _Get out of my head, Cipher!_ he shouted, trying to sound brave.

Bill twisted Stan's face into a psychotic smile and laughed. _How am I supposed to leave you alone when you've stumbled right into my domain?! I own this dimension, Stanford!_ He conjured a blade out of thin air and held it to Stan's throat. _Now, if I make the incision, he's going to fall face down into the water! Then, which do you think will kill him first, the bleeding or the drowning?_

 _This isn't real_ , Ford said aloud. _This isn't real, this isn't real-_

 _What_ is _real, Stanford?_ Bill taunted. _Do you think you're real? What about the world you came from? What about the one you're in now? What about those kids?_ Dipper and Mabel suddenly appeared on either side of him, staring vacantly into the distance. _It doesn't matter! None of it matters! In your dreams, and in your reality, I have eyes everywhere! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA_

While still laughing, he swiftly sliced Stan's throat and his body fell forwards into the water, crimson slowly spreading from his bobbing form. Ford couldn't breathe.

 _What a shame_ , Bill said, suddenly floating behind him. Ford jumped and turned around. _You had to witness Stan's downfall a second time. But on the bright side, at least it wasn't your fault this time! Or the fault of that dumb broad over there._ He jerked his thumb over at Mabel, whose dead-eyed form immediately disintegrated, along with Dipper's.

 _I... I'll find a way to stop you, Bill_ , Ford struggled, trying to catch his breath. _I'll kill you. And make sure you never come back._

Bill chuckled. _You're too much of a goody-goody, Stanford. I've been in your mind. I should know.That's why, on the contrary..._

His one eye turned black as he grew larger and larger.

_I'LL BE THE ONE TO KILL YOU._

Ford woke with a start, panting heavily. He checked the clock on the wall: 6:18 AM. He exhaled and got up, making his way to the bathroom.

He shut the door behind him and looked in the mirror. He looked like a wreck. He touched his right eye. Still sore from being possessed all those times. He cursed quietly and began to splash cold water on his face. He toweled off and looked in the mirror once more. _Bill's wrong about me. I'm not some goody-goody. I'm not Stan and I'm not those kids. I'm..._

He thought of Glass Shard Beach-- about throwing his first punch because someone had the nerve to call his brother an antisemitic slur. He thought about how even though his relationship with his parents wasn't the best, he still stood up for them whenever anyone had the nerve to call his mom a fraud or his dad a conman. He thought of all the creatures he had to shoot with his ray gun to protect Fiddleford, and how he felt nothing but triumph and relief when they were dead and his lab partner was safe and sound. He thought of his new great nephew and great niece, and how Dipper had had that spark in his eye when talking about that first summer, and how Ford would do anything to give him and his sister that spark back. 

_I'm a man who will kill to protect the people he loves._

He left the bathroom with a new sense of purpose. And when he entered the kitchen to find Stan there, he did the next right thing: he hugged his brother.

"I'm sorry," he said. 

Stan looked dumbfounded, but after a few seconds, he hugged back. "We have a lot to talk about, sixer," he chuckled finally, pulling away.

They talked for hours about everything: Jersey, the journals, the lab, the shack, their parents, modern technology, and even Dipper and Mabel, who each happened to come into the kitchen while they were talking, and who each stayed a while to listen to them reminisce. 

"I've been meaning to ask, how did you manage to renovate so much without giving it away above ground?" asked Ford.

"Dipper, you're the smart one, you tell him," said Stan, looking fondly at his nephew for what seemed like the first time in a while. Dipper explained how they had made a boundary of unicorn hair that kept Bill from reaching what was left of the shack, and about how he mostly renovated it with the help of supernatural forces he discovered himself. He grinned when he saw how proudly Ford was looking at him.

Suddenly, Mabel ran back into the room. "Intruders on the front lines," she said urgently. Stan and Dipper immediately dropped what they were doing and ran off to retrieve armaments for battle. 

"Bill's minions are attacking the boundaries," Dipper explained hurriedly to Ford, who was trailing behind him. "If that barrier goes down, we're doomed." He reached his room and began sifting through the chest of weapons that Ford had noticed last night. "What do you need? Or do you already have a weapon?"

"I left my ray gun at home," said Ford sheepishly.

Dipper gave him one of his. "I trust you already know how to work one, then."

Ford nodded as Dipper extracted dual flintlock pistols from the chest. They looked like ordinary guns that had been modified a bit. _Is it bad that I'm a little excited to see what those do?_ Ford thought.

He and Dipper ran upstairs to the exit to find Stan and Mabel already outside. Mabel had the FUN CANNON, which at this point Ford assumed was her weapon of choice. Stan took a more old-school approach, opting to fire at the demons using a machine gun. He also had a pile of grenades at his side. Dipper took his place alongside his sister and fired the pistols, causing neon-colored bullets to shoot towards the demons and explode them on impact. 

"Say, what exactly did you put in those?" yelled Ford over the sound of weapons being fired. His own ray gun, although doing a fair amount of damage, looked lame compared to what the others were using.

"The bullets are made of pure light energy and electromagnetic radiation," Dipper shouted back. "Solidifying it was a difficult process, but I was able to do it through trial and error... and by studying what you left behind." He said that last part with a small smile.

 _I've never met a fourteen year old who speaks about these things so eloquently_ , thought Ford as he shot a large, gaping hole through some sort of three-eyed pentagon monster. _He really is my great nephew._ He couldn't help but look over at Mabel, trying to find what he had in common with her. She seemed to be relaxed, yet intensely focused, killing every monster she aimed at and never missing once. Ford was able to pinpoint it immediately. _She's ruthless._

She noticed him looking at her and gave him a look that seemed to say _What happened last night won't happen again._ She retrieved a grenade from her pocket with the label RAVE BOMB and hurled it at a floating one-eyed head, causing it to explode into a mess of confetti and colorful light. She watched the explosion with a calm, yet satisfied impression. 

Ford was a little disappointed that she was ashamed at herself for being vulnerable in front of him. He shook his head and focused back on shooting monsters. 

_It's alright_ , he thought. _She just wants people to know how strong she is. That part, she gets from Stanley._


	4. Heart and Mind

Ford looked down at his "dinner" and felt his stomach turn. Rations, in a can, with some unidentifiable crunchy bits in it. It smelled... meaty. He picked it up and looked at the label: Brown Meat. _Figures._ As he picked at the pungent brown slop, the other members of the Pines family ravenously ate it up.

"Isn't it weird," Mabel said with a mouthful of brown meat, "that your own twin is, like, a jillion years older than you now?"

"Sorry if that's a rude question," Dipper interjected quickly, shooting a look at his sister.

"It's no trouble. It really is weird," said Ford, finally pushing the can away from him. He could sense reproach in the look that Dipper gave his sister, almost as if there was a competitive nature to their relationship that turned every day into a contest.

For example: that morning, Mabel had witnessed Dipper give Ford detailed diagrams of paranormal beings that he had drawn himself, boasting about how much his drawing skills had improved since he first began journaling. Later, Ford entered his room to find his clothes laundered and neatly folded, with a note that said "Love, Mabel". He couldn't help but assume that every day was like this for them. A constant crossfire of mind games and passive-aggressive gestures. A far cry from the happy stories of their youth he had heard the night before. And strangest of all, his brother didn't even notice; or worse, he didn't care. Ford stood up.

"Do you mind if I examine the protective barriers you've put around the house? I really am fascinated by them."

"I'll go with you," said Dipper immediately.

"No, no," Ford said as Mabel rolled her eyes at her brother. "I think I'll go alone, thank you." _If they're going to make everything into a contest, I'll see to it that neither of them win._

Ford went outside, and the hot, dry air felt like a punch in the face compared to the cool, pressure-controlled air inside the bunker. He wished he could have seen what his laboratory had become before it was destroyed; when Stanley first told him about the "Mystery Shack" he felt insulted, but now it seemed almost hilarious. Dipper had shown him pictures of the shack on his touch-screen internet phone (which Ford was still perplexed by) but he still wished he could have seen it in person. What back then was a hacky tourist trap now seemed like a paragon of simpler times.

He shook these thoughts from his mind as he got to the boundary and knelt down, lightly touching it with his index finger. _Unicorn hair._ He never did finish researching those creatures, but it seemed like his family eventually figured it out without him. Even though, apparently, they figured it out too late.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream came from a few yards away. Stanford bolted upright.

A blonde girl was being bombarded by floating nightmares. There were creatures with arms coming out of their eyesockets, flying insects with human eyeballs, living inanimate objects with grotesque human features, and some that Ford couldn't find the words to describe-- not even in his mind. The girl was doing her best to fight these creatures off with what looked like a very expensive sword, but it was clear that they were overpowering her. 

Ford was frozen. _That girl needs help. But do I dare leave the confines of this boundary?_ Panic started to settle in, and he began to scream for help.

"HELP! DIPPER, MABEL, STAN, ANYBODY-!" His words were drowned out by the rushing of wind, and that was when he made the bravest, stupidest decision of his life so far: he ran. His legs felt almost like they were moving on their own as he leapt over the thin layer of unicorn hair protecting him from the demons outside and sprinted towards the girl.

_Oh my god I'm doing it I'm being a hero take that mom and dad- wait. I'm not armed oh god what am I doing I'm gonna die and she's gonna die too this was so stupid why did I have to be a hero-_

He arrived in front of the swarm of demons and mustered up his courage to do the only thing he knew how to do in a fight:

"LEFT HOOK!" he shouted instinctually as he drove his fist directly into the bloodshot eye of a living chair. It screeched angrily and fell backward. He punched monster after monster until one of them seemingly blinked out of existence just before his fist made contact, causing him to fall face-first and skid across the dusty ground. He sat up and found that the rest of the monsters had disappeared as well, leaving only him and the hyperventilating girl. He checked himself for injuries before getting up to make sure the girl was okay. She backed away from him, confused.

"Stan? Since when are you... _handsome_?" she asked in a posh, valley-girl accent. Ford was taken aback and turned bright red.

"Well you see, I'm not actually-," he began, but then reminded himself of the matter at hand. "Are you... sure you're alright?"

"Who are you?"

"Pacifica?" asked a voice from the bunker.

Ford turned around to see Mabel standing on the other side of the boundary with her bazooka in hand, dumbfounded.

The blonde ( _Pacifica? Odd name_ ) looked excited to see Mabel and rushed over to her, giving her a tight hug. "Oh my god, I thought you were gone," she blubbered as Mabel tried to wriggle free.

"C'mon Pacifica, you know I like hugs, but this is a liiittle tight," she laughed. She looked back up at Ford and her expression turned to fear. " _Get back in here now!_ " she yelled with such urgency that it made Ford jump.

Ford immediately jogged back across the boundary to the bunker and stopped next to her. _For such a young kid, she really knows how to be a hardass,_ he thought.

"Don't ever go out there!" Mabel ordered him sternly, with one hand still holding Pacifica's. "Bill will do whatever it takes to get in your mind, you hear me?! _I'm not letting him get anyone else!_ "

"Right, you're right, I'm sorry," Ford stammered, a little embarrassed. _The kid has a point. If Bill gets me, it's probably game over._

As he stood there, feeling stupid, Mabel turned and walked Pacifica to the bunker. There was something about the way they interacted-- the constant physical contact, their close proximity to each other, the concerned looks that Mabel kept giving her whenever she shivered or coughed --that all seemed slightly familiar to Ford. He remembered working in his old lab with- _don't think about that now._

As the sun set on this burnt and barren wasteland his family called home, Ford descended the steps into the bunker. The cool, insulated environment that made him feel queasy at first felt welcoming now. The sound of his newfound family squabbling, not so much.

"Why didn't either of you go with him?!" Stan shouted as Ford entered the kitchen. "We could've all died, or worse, been enslaved!"

"At least I offered to go!" Dipper shouted back. "What did you do-- what do you _ever_ do --besides sit on your ass?!"

"Guys, calm down," Mabel said, hugging Pacifica. "If Ford weren't out there, Pacifica might've died. Let's just thank him and tell him not to do it again."

"Pacifica's strong, she could've handled herself," said Dipper.

Pacifica looked hurt, but just looked at the floor silently.

"I can't believe you would even say that!" Mabel exclaimed. "This is why I hate it when you guys fight-- you always say stuff you don't mean and it drives us all apart even more! And it drives me _insane!_ " 

Ford slammed his fist down on the table. "Enough!"

The ferocity in his voice shocked everyone, including him. He looked down at his fist and slowly lifted it, giving it a rub with his other hand. "Mabel, I want you to show Pacifica to her room," he ordered. She nodded and the two girls exited the room. 

"Dipper, I am very disappointed in you," he said, turning to his great nephew. "You have to remember that mind and heart are equally important-- one can't make up for the other. From now on, could you please consider other people's feelings before you speak?"

Dipper became redfaced. _His idol just expressed disappointment at his shortcomings_ , Ford realized. _That must've felt like a punch in the gut._

"Just... think about it, okay?" Ford asked, his voice softening. Dipper nodded and trudged away to his bedroom.

Ford looked over at Stan, still rubbing his hand. "It hurt when I did that."

"Congratulations, brother," said Stan, raising a can of beer. "You officially had your first Grunkle Moment!"

"Grunkle moment...?"

"Doesn't it feel nice to take control?" Stan asked, leaning back in his chair. "We really needed someone like you around here."

 _Uh, yeah. You definitely did._ Ford began heading back to where the bedrooms were. He still couldn't help but worry about that girl.

When he got to Mabel's room, he found her sitting on the floor while braiding Pacifica's hair and talking very seriously in a hushed voice about something having to do with the two of them, and with Bill Cipher.

"Shooting star-

Heard him talk about-

Wheel-

Only hope-"

Mabel made eye contact with Ford and immediately stopped talking, smiling as if nothing had happened. "Wanna join the braid train?"

Ford was bewildered, but could hide it well. "No thanks, I just came in here to check on you two."

"Pacifica, this is my grunkle Ford. Stan's brother."

"Hello there Pacifica, are you a friend of Mabel's?" Ford asked in a stilted manner. _Talking to kids never gets easier._

Pacifica gave a halfhearted laugh. "I guess you could say that. Nice to meet you, Ford." He watched her smile fade and be replaced with sorrow once more. Something was on her mind.

 _She looks so much older when she's sad_ , Ford thought. _This has all taken a toll on her._

"I'm a Northwest," Pacifica sniffed, unprompted. She turned to Ford. "I bet you think that's pretty ironic, huh?"

He had no idea what to say. He looked to Mabel for help, but it seemed like she didn't know either. "Where have you been living for the past two years?" he asked finally.

"Here and there," she answered sullenly. "I lived in my parents' mansion at first, but-"

Tears formed in her eyes as she remembered. "They were taken by Bill. As slaves, I guess. You should've seen what he did to their faces, it was-" She began to sob. _Uh oh. I definitely shouldn't have asked that._

Mabel clearly agreed with this sentiment, as she looked up at Ford with exasperation. He gave her a confused look in return that said _I don't know what I'm doing_.

"It's alright Pacifica, we can talk about something else," Mabel said to her soothingly. "How about clothes? Have you seen any cool apocalypse outfits recently?"

Ford silently saw himself out of the room, mulling over what Pacifica had just said. She was a Northwest-- a descendant of the town's founder. She and her family had practically ruled Gravity Falls, and look where that got them in the end. His hands were shaking.He felt anger, yes, but also a sense of shock at how drastically everyone's lives have been changed for the worse because of Bill. His first instinct was to consult his journals for ideas on how to defeat him, but of course that wasn't an option anymore. And Dipper was still in his room sulking, so there wasn't much chance he'd get anything out of him. _Was I that moody as a fourteen year old? And what was it that Mabel was talking about? Why is she keeping it from me?_

The incalculable human toll of the apocalypse started to really weigh on him. And even though he had been trying very hard not to, he began to think about Fiddleford. Was he still alive? And if so, did he even remember him? And what about all those names he had heard in Dipper's stories: "Wendy", "Soos", "Candy", "Grenda", what happened to them? The idea of these people's lives being destroyed - or worse, taken away from them - made his blood boil.

 _No more games_ , he thought. _Starting now, I'm going to try and end this thing._


	5. Blame

Mabel's day started out as pretty average-- well, as average as a post-apocalyptic morning routine can be. 

Step One: Wake up earlier than everybody else. As the weapons expert in the family, she considered herself their first line of defense, and took it as her responsibility to look out for her family members as they slept. 

Step Two: Brush teeth. Toothpaste had been almost impossible to find since the apocalypse started, but a baking soda and hydrogen peroxide mixture worked just as well. 

Step Three: Get dressed. She, like everybody else who wanted to last more than a week in Gravity Falls, wore a bulletproof vest under her clothes. She also wore holsters on her waist for what she called her "Pep Pistols"-- what she used if the Fun Cannon got too heavy.

Step Four: Make breakfast. A can of peaches usually served as a delicious mea-

Ford was standing right there.

"Gah!" she exclaimed, almost dropping the can. "Ford... I didn't see you come in. Good morning."

"I know you're hiding something," he stated. "You were talking to Pacifica about some kind of wheel. Something that could be our 'only hope'."

Mabel bit her lip and turned away. "That's... I was just spitballing. That's not a sure thing."

"What do you mean? Why?"

"It was just a hunch that Dipper had. Something he read in one of your journals. Those have all been destroyed, but he still sees the symbols in his dreams... I don't know, okay? I was just comforting Pacifica because she's my..."

Ford waited.

"... Friend." 

Suddenly, the memories began rushing back. In between the black spots in his memory were the words of his muse, the inscriptions on cave walls, the secrets that were only kept between him and demons. Ford lowered himself until his eyes were level with Mabel's.

"I'm not convinced. I may not have been in a healthy state of mind when I discovered that wheel, but I remember its power, and I won't let it be swept aside like some insane fantasy. This could be the key to getting your lives back, and you're being so damn secretive! Don't you want to fix everything-?"

"I don't want to _ruin_ everything again!" Mabel cried. 

Ford stared at her and shook his head. "What a selfish thing to say."

He knew those words had resonated because she was too hurt to respond. Instead, she looked glumly back at the can of peaches that she had set down on the counter. There would be no breakfast today. Then, she looked down at the floor, her lip trembling.

"What does Dipper think?" asked Ford. "Is he willing to go through with it, or is he also too blinded by guilt to take a stand? I won't even bother asking about Stan."

"I haven't asked Dipper about it," Mabel admitted. "But I trust his judgement. He's a smart man."

Ford scoffed at her use of the word _man_. Dipper was a boy, plain and simple. In fact, despite Stan's presence, Ford often felt like the only adult in the house. 

"You haven't even asked him. Unbelievable. You two always pick on Stan for not being proactive, but the only difference between him and you two is that you two go out and scavenge for scraps every once in a while. Like dogs."

Those final words hung in the air for a moment.

"Well, I sure do feel terrible," Mabel said bitterly. "Are you happy?"

"No, I'm not, and neither is anybody else. That's the problem. You've all been sitting on something that could change everybody's lives for the better, and yet you choose to let the citizens of Gravity Falls starve and bleed and fight for their lives on a daily basis!"

"Because in the Pines family, we break everything we touch," Mabel said.

It felt like a blow to the heart. The anger that Ford had been feeling before was now replaced with deep, deep sadness. These people had failed. They failed on such a scale that the lives of everyone they know were ruined. How could they be asked to take another such risk when the last one had produced such misery.

 _For years now, I've been trying to fix things that Stan broke, and now in an alternate future, not much has changed,_ he thought. _And how am I any better?_ _Because of me, my only friend is traumatized, my brother is homeless, and my family barely talks to each other. It all feels like the blind leading the blind._

Ford opened his mouth to apologize when suddenly a small rustling sound came from the doorway. They both whipped around to find Pacifica standing there with a solemn expression, looking from person to person.

"Mabel--," she began, but Mabel held up her hand.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Pacifica," she said flatly. "But the conversation's over now. We can all go back to whatever we were doing before."

"I agree with Ford," Pacifica said.

They were stunned. Mabel's mouth was agape as she tried to find the words to articulate the simultaneous betrayal and shame she was feeling. Ford's bewilderment rendered him briefly unable to speak.

"We can't just do nothing. Bill won't stop until everyone in Gravity Falls is either dead, or tortured by their own existence," continued Pacifica. "To just sit there and gaze at the mess you made... I know that none of you can do that and live with it. I know that you're all good people."

It was baffling to see such a young girl speak so articulately. _I guess good money gets you a good education._

"Well I've been living with my mistakes for a very long time," Mabel sniffed. "It never gets easier, and I'm not about to make another one. I'm sorry."

Pacifica gave her a sorrowful, sympathetic look as she trudged out of the kitchen. Then, she turned to Ford.

"I know Mabel isn't completely sold on it yet, but please, please ask Dipper about the wheel. I feel like if you two put your heads together, you can come up with something good."

Ford said nothing.

"Mabel will come around on it," she promised. "Trust me, I know her. She wants to do good. She's just stubborn, is all. Stubborn and scared."

She looked back at the doorway, and Ford saw lines of worry racing across her face. 

\---

"The Cipher wheel?" Dipper murmured. "How did you...?"

"I overheard Mabel and Pacifica talking about it," Ford explained. "From what I remember, it could be our only chance."

Dipper looked at the ground remorsefully. 

"I have to admit, I'm ashamed that I gave up on it," Dipper said. "But the truth is, I can't do it alone. And for years, that's been my only option."

Ford leaned in closer. "Do you have it written down anywhere?"

Dipper nodded and walked over to his desk, rummaging through the drawers. He retrieved a green journal with a worn leather spine.

"One of the first journals I started," he mumbled, flipping through it. "Took me longer to finish than the rest of them. About a year, I think."

He found the page he was looking for and presented it to Ford. It looked just how he remembered, and the details of its function started coming back to him.

"If my memory serves me right, each symbol represents a person," he stated. Dipper's eyes widened.

"That was my hunch all those years ago!" he replied. He pointed to one of the symbols on the wheel: a pine tree. "I used to have a hat with that exact symbol on it. I got it when I first came to this town."

"Do you have a notepad?" asked Ford urgently. Dipper handed a pen and pad to him and he jotted down _Dipper: Pine Tree_.

He then pointed to the shooting star symbol. "That's gotta be Mabel. Same thing, except it was a sweater she had."

_Mabel: Shooting Star._

They kept going around the wheel (Dipper struggled on some of them, particularly the llama and ice bag), and eventually every person had been identified except one: the glasses. 

"I think," Dipper said slowly, "this might be... McGucket."

Ford froze. _How does he know that name?_

"He just recently started wearing glasses," Dipper continued, "after we helped him out a while back."

"Are you talking about Fiddleford McGucket? How do you know him? Is he alright?" Ford frantically asked.

"Oh, that's right! He worked with you, didn't he?"

"Is he alright?" Ford asked again, his voice pleading.

As Dipper searched for the words, his face full of sorrow, Ford's heart sank. 

"He's... changed a lot since you knew him," Dipper said finally. His hands were fidgeting with each other in his lap. Something he did when he was nervous.

"What do you mean?" Ford asked. _Please be okay please be okay_

Finally, Dipper spoke.

"He hasn't been in his right mind for years. Only recently did he start regaining sanity," Dipper blurted out. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Ford's head was swimming.

_This is all my fault. This is all my fault. This is all my fault._

**A/N:** Hey everybody! I have a question for all of you: should I keep going with this story? Now that my personal life is getting busier, I won't be able to write as much, so should I just end it here, or wait a while and work on it when I end up getting some free time. Pls let me know, thx!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first Gravity Falls fic I've ever written so feedback is much appreciated :) And if you wanna commission a fic, message me on my tumblr @grimm-rific! Thanks!


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